'1202 Anno Domini' Medieval T and O style Map of the world!

[V1G1LANC3]

Hi guys! Haven't been on in a while, just posting a map that I guess Is kind off 'finished' although i'll probably edit it more maybe. It's a T and O style map of the world, commonly employed in the early to high middle ages and essentially divides the three known continents of the world into a sideways T placed in an a circle of ocean, thus the 'O'. I was inspired to draw this map after falling in love with the romanticism on maps such as the 'Mappa Mundi' as well as the earlier but often more accurate conceptions of Ptolemy the geographer. Like all good medieval maps they are maps of history as well as the present, often drawing on biblical and classical narratives and preach a message about the transcendence of the constant and heavenly things in contrast to the often hectic and ever changing world of man, with monsters and wild men roaming the outer rims and people with varying interests and diversions in the known part of the world. The three figures down the bottom are some of the great geographers and astrologers of the classical Hellenistic world, Ptolemy, Strabo and Pliny the Elder. In the heavenly sphere is Peter the apostle and Moses the law giver.
Did a bit of research into western European conceptions of the world which include them believing that the Red sea was literally a sea that was Red (all medieval maps before the renaissance show the red sea as red and some believe every river in Asia also ran red), they also believed regions of Africa where occupied a monstrous race of cannibals called the Blemmynes who have faces in their chest (perhaps a distorted report of the great apes or the result of the Blemmynes people using shields with heads of them to cover there chests).


Hope you guys find it interesting and was wondering if any of you have tried doing a real world T and O map or a fantasy conceptualisation of one.


Hoping, now I have time to spend more time on these forums and get to discuss others map work! Btw. The map isn't that low of a resolution I just haven't compressed it properly yet, I'll be doing that soon.


Thanks

[jshoer]

This is much more accurate that the actual T and O maps! It's a very cool experiment. I like the colors and the way you distorted known shapes to give it the feel of limited knowledge. Great work!

Also, that chest-face man is funny.

[V1G1LANC3]

Thanks Jshoer! I based the geography of places more on Arabic Maps than European ones just because they where slightly more accurate, at least in portraying places like Africa and Persia, however, they were considerably less interesting aesthetically than the European maps.


Something about those chest men grabbed a hold of me, I'm not sure if they are really funny or super spooky.

[Neyasha]

That's an interesting project. I love medieval maps and I always wanted to do something similar for my fantasy world, so it's very nice to see I'm not the only one fascinated by this style.
Very nice map! It would be lovely to add even more curiosities like the Blemmynes.

[V1G1LANC3]

Thankyou Neyasha, yeah I would like to do one that is more embellished, however, it's sometimes a challenge finding the line between a reasonable level of detail and all out gaudiness.